The Daily Showdown
'Keep Ebola Weird!' The Daily Show visits Austin, mocks Texas on Ebola
Jon Stewart has brought The Daily Show down here to Austin to cover the 2014 midterms, and he greeted his first night's guests on Monday in full Ebola hazmat suit and carrying a semi-automatic rifle — Texas is "the only open-carry Ebola state in the Union," he explained, probably unnecessarily. Though he's in Austin to cover politics, he said, he had to first address what everyone is talking about: America's "perverse obsession with a virus that none of us who has not had direct contact with an Ebola patient has gotten."
After that it was full-court Ebola coverage: Samantha Bee in Dallas, reporting that Texas handled its Ebola outbreak by shooting at, giving the death penalty to, and praying for the virus; Aasif Mandvi in New York, railing against his decision to stay in the new Ebola Central; Jordan Klepper, eating meat; and Jessica Williams, flattering Austin. Will Austin get Ebola from Dallas? Stewart asked, setting her up. "Austin sets the trends, and Dallas finds out about them five years later," Williams said, snapping. "Austin is already brewing its own locally sourced, small batch, Fair Trade, organic, cage free, farm-to-table Ebola. Keep Ebola Weird!"
After sticking it to Texas (well, mostly Dallas), Stewart mocked New York and New Jersey's Ebola panic, and Congressional Republicans' Ebola fearmongering, in the second part of the show, which you can watch here. --Peter Weber